Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
Maharashtra surge ahead of Haryana on medals table with Mallakhamb gold
Maharashtra’s Rupali Sunil Gangawane dished out a clinical performance to claim her second gold medal in the 36th National Games Mallakhamb competition at the Sanskardham Sports Academy in Ahemdabad on Monday.
The Mumbaikar secured the Women’s Individual All-Around crown to add to Maharashtra’s Women’s Team gold.
Rupali Gangawane, the 23-year-old reigning queen of Mallakhambh, scored 17.80 points on the Pole and the Rope to win gold by a 0.50 point margin from her team-mate Janhavi Suresh Jadhav. These successes helped Maharashtra’s rise to the second place on the medal tally with 32 gold medals behind Services and ahead of Haryana.
With Ajatasatru Sharma, S Albert Raj, Bhumjit Singh and Gyanjit Arambam paddling in unison to K4 Sprint gold in the Canoeing and Kayaking competition on the river Sabarmati, Services increased the haul of gold to 52. Services have 33 silver and 29 bronze for a total of 114 medals. Maharashtra have a total of 122 medals, including 32 gold, while Haryana are third with 31 gold in a total of 98.
There was, however, massive disappointment for the Maharashtra Men’s Hockey team who were unable to make the most of their pre-match favourites tag against Uttar Pradesh in the semifinals at the Maj. Dhyan Chand Stadium in Rajkot. Maharashtra rallied from three goals down to take the match into the penalty shootout but ran out of luck.
Sumit scored in the 22nd minute to give Uttar Pradesh the lead. Sunil Yadav doubled the tally with a penalty-corner goal in injury time in the second quarter while Manish Yadav made it 3-0 with a penalty corner conversion seven minutes into the third quarter. Maharashtra bounced back through Aniket Gurav  and Sayyad Niyaz Rahim .
In the shoot-out, the teams were level 2-2 after four attempts each. Rajkumar Pal and Rahul Kumar Rajbhar put Uttar Pradesh 2-0 ahead before Darshan Gawkar and Yuvraj Walmiki brought Maharashtra back into the contest. Venkatesh Kenche could not beat Uttar Pradesh goalkeeper Prashant Kumar while skipper Lalit Kumar Upadhyay found the winner.
Back on the Sabarmati, it was heartening to watch the experienced Rajina Kiro hold her own in the Women’s K1 500m Sprint against Kaushal Nandini Thakur  and Pooja 
Rahasri Manogar Babu  won the Soft Tennis Women’s Singles gold with an easy win over Aadhya Tiwari . She then had to put her best foot forward in beating the home State’s Hetvee Chaudhari 1-4, 2-4, 4-1, 4-1, 1-4, 9-7, 7-0 in the semifinals.
Late on Sunday, the battle for Mallakhambh Men’s Individual All-Around gold, featuring Maharashtra’s Akshay Taral from Mumbai and Shubhankar from Pune, brought fans in Sanskardham to the edge of their seats. Only 0.15 points separated the two contestants while Chandrashekhar Chauhan  was a further 0.35 points behind.
The results :
Canoeing and Kayaking
Men
K4 1000m Sprint: 1. Ajatasatru Sharma, S Albert Raj, Bhumjit Singh and Gyanjit Arambam  1:34.495; 2. Vishal Dangi, Akshit Baroi, Himanshu Tandon and Rimson Mairembam  1:36.422; 3. Harsh Kumar, Mahendra Singh, Kunal and Ningthoujam Nivash Singh  1:389.168.
Women
C2 500m Sprint: 1. Meghna Pradeep and Akshaya Sunil  2:16.816; 2. Kaveri Dimar and Shivani Verma  2:16.896; 2. Rashmita Sahoo and Sachima Kerketta  2:33.506.
K1 500m Sprint: 1. Rajina Kiro  2:08.652; 2. Kaushal Nandini Thakur  2:09.186; 3. Pooja  2:12.926.
K2 500m Sprint: 1. Fulmani Xaxa and Oinam Bindya Devi  2:07.443; 2. Jyoti and Pooja  2:09.446; 3. Rajina Kiro and Sandhya Kispota  2:10.806.
K4 500m Sprint: 1. Aleena Biju, Sreelakshmi Jayaprakash, Treesa Jacob and G Parvathi  1:56.259; 2. Dipali, Suahma Verma, Dimita Devi and Swati Sahu  1:57.859; 3. Fulmani Xaxa, Oinam Bidya Devi, Pukharambam Roji Devi and Shruti Choughule  1:58.932.
Football:
Women’s Bronze medal play-off: Tamil Nadu beat Assam 5-1 .
Mallakhambh
Men’s Individual All-Around : 1. Akshay Prakash Taral  26.85 points; 2. Shubhankar Vinay Khawale  26.70; 3. Chandrashekhar Chauhan  26.35.
Women’s Team: 1. Maharashtra 88.75 points; 2, Madhya Pradesh 83.10; 3. Chhattisgarh 80.10.
Women’s Individual All-Around: 1. Rupali Sunil Gangawane  17.80 points; 2. Janhavi Suresh Jadhav  17.30; 3. Sidhi Gupta  17.20.
Other results
Hockey
Men’s semifinal: Uttar Pradesh beat Maharashtra 3-3  3-2 in penalty shoot-out.
Soft Tennis
Men’s Singles : Jay Meena  beat Rohit Dhiman  5-3, 4-1, 4-2, 4-1; Jitender Mehta  beat Aniket Chirag Patel  4-2, 4-2, 2-4, 4-2, 4-0.
Women’s Singles : Rahasri Manogar Babu  beat Aadhya Tiwari  4-2, 4-2, 4-1, 4-0. Bronze medals: Nikita Bishnoi  and Hetvee Chaudhari .